At least 128 hurt, 100 held in Hungary riots

Police and anti-government activists clashed on the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising, which erupted on October 23, 1956.

Some 100 protestors were detained and 128 people were injured in clashes between anti-government demonstrators and police on Monday and early on Tuesday on the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising, authorities said on Tuesday.

"There were 128 injuries, six to eight of which were serious," an emergency services spokeswoman told the agency.

Police spokesman Tibor Jarmy told state-run news agency MTI that "around 100" had been detained in the riots, but he could not give an exact figure. He said 19 policemen had been injured.

Many of those who battled police late on Monday were far-right extremists, many of them waving the red-and-white striped flag used by Hungary's pro-Nazi government during World War II.

There were fears that the riots could bring a return of the violence triggered by a leaked recording in mid-September in which Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said he had lied to voters about the economy to win re-election in April.

Those protests, which lasted more than one month, degenerated into riots which left hundreds injured.

Hungary's uprising erupted on October 23, 1956 and was crushed by Soviet tanks on November 4, sealing the country's fate as a satellite state of Moscow until the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.